President Bush's first State of the Union address -- which received five standing ovations -- was lacking in any concrete plans, said local experts.

"I thought the speech was full of cliches and contained very little substance," said Richard Gregg, professor of speech communications.

Bush called for a reduction in U.S. and Soviet forces in Europe to 195,000 troops on both sides. Also during the 45-minute speech, the president outlined his goals for the U.S. educational system and the national deficit.

Thomas Benson, a professor of speech communications, said the president was too vague in outlining his proposals.

"The speech contained a list of attitudes and wishes but it was short on description of how the implied goals are going to be carried out," he said.

However Chuck Mong, chairman of the Centre County Republican Committee, said the speech was inspiring.

"I thought the speech was hopeful, just calling attention to the events of the last year and what it might mean to the world environment," Mong said.

A representative of Centre County Democrats could not be reached for comment last night.

The president began his address by highlighting some of the political changes that occurred in 1989, including those in Panama, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Gregg said Bush failed to point out other major world events, such as the Tiananmen Square incident in China.

"If we're going to stand for democracy, lets make it uniform," Gregg said.

In outlining his educational plan, Bush set goals for the year 2000 including increasing high school graduation rate to 90 percent and making U.S. students first in the world in math and science test scores.

"Bush wanted to claim during the campaign that he was the education president, but what he's doing by increasing (educational) spending by 2 percent is really nothing," Gregg said.

Because the event was nationally televised, Bush may have had trouble getting his message across.

"In many cases he was simply unclear and obscure -- he clearly was speaking to two audiences: the public and congress," said Benson, adding,"I'm not sure he managed that problem effectively."

Gregg commended House Speaker Thomas S. Foley's reaction as being one of the best he's ever heard. Foley praised the president's European troop reduction plan, but said the Democrats would challenge Bush on child care, clean air legislation, capital gains and the issue of abortion.

In his address, the president also defended his stance on social security, assuring those depending on the program saying, "We made a promise to you and we are going to keep it."

In closing Bush said, "The state of the union depends on all Americans."

Gregg said the overall speech was unrealistic and didn't address the real problems facing the country.

"Bush made things sound a great deal more rosier than they are and at some time the pigeons are gonna come to roost," he said.